Nathan van Hooydonck sees clear favourite for the yellow jersey: "I would pick Jonas any day of the week"

Nathan van Hooydonck has pinpointed what sets Jonas Vingegaard apart from Tadej Pogacar and the rest of his rivals as his former Visma | Lease a Bike teammate goes for a historic Tour de France hat-trick this summer. If he succeeds, he'd be the first rider to achieve this feat since Chris Froome did between 2015 and 2017.

In an interview with Eurosport, the 28-year-old explained what makes Vingegaard such a formidable competitor. "I think his ability to recover day in day out as good as he can because as we all saw Pogacar was equally strong actually in the first two weeks last year," he said.

"I think Jonas proved that in the third week that's where he makes the difference. Also the belief in himself. I think he believes he's the best and as soon as he commits to the start of the season, he only has the Tour de France on his mind."

"I think it's going to be a very hard contested Tour de France," Van Hooydonck added. "I think the four best stage racers, they’re all going to attend the Tour and I think that’s how it should be. The best stage racers should race in the Tour de France because that's what counts, that’s the most important."

Pushed to choose a winner, however, the Dutchman admitted it’s hard to look past the defending champion. "If I had to pick, I would pick Jonas any day of the week," he said. "I've worked with him for two years quite closely, we're still very good friends, I'll go to his house to visit him before Tour, and I have an extreme amount of confidence in his ability to win the Tour three times."